Grown Ups 2 Movie Review for Parents

-by Ginger

In Grown Ups 2, Lennie Fedder has moved his family to the small town where he and his friends grew up. Some things are the same, but some things are not exactly the way he left them. It is the last day of school and the kids have some lessons to teach the adults. This movie starring Adam Sandler promises to be crazy summer time fun. This movie is a comedy, but parents might not find all of the scenes quite so funny. As always, Parental Guide to the movies will let you know what you are in for ahead of time.

When Lennie moves his family back, many of the same bullies are still lurking about. There are also some new bullies. The theme of bullying appears throughout the movie. There are also crazy bus drivers and cops behaving poorly. Drunken police officers creating mayhem on skis might not be the best image of our public servants. All of these circumstances are presented as part of the humor and comedic situations.

Of course, Adam Sandler fans will be delighted, but you already know that he is not necessarily known for family friendly situations. In one scene, he question how a friend of his became a cop and refers to the things that they did when growing up. The cop pulls a gun on the group of old high school friends, supposedly all grown up, and then makes them do a silly dance. This scene makes light of pulling a gun on someone as a joke.

Adam Sandler is playing an adult in this movie who has brought his family to the country for the hopes of getting them away from what goes on in the city. However, he then reverts to his childhood himself. He accepts a challenge to run naked in public by a bunch of younger fraternity boys. His own group of friends is all middle-aged men with families, but they relive their childhood and start behaving as if they do not have a care or responsibility in the world. Jumping off cliffs and cannonballing in swimming holes while trying to impress much younger beautiful women in bikinis may not be the best fatherly role model.

This movie contains heavy drinking and explicit sexual references. These grown men are still into the same shenanigans they were up to before they had children and supposedly grew up into fatherly role models. At one point, Adam Sandler has to cover up what the term "wasted" means to his children. Then, the kids start saying that they want to "get wasted", thinking that it means they want ice cream. All of this is met with uproarious laughter by Adam Sandler's character.

This movie has everything, including flatulent moose in the bedroom, but it does not have good family values. This movie is more about grown men having a mid-life crisis and trying to recapture their long lost youth than moving the family away for a better life. This movie has plenty of sophomoric humor, but no real moral or social values could be found. If you are an Adam Sandler fan, this movie is in line with his others, but it might not be the best choice for a kids movie.